The latest Ikhana Series 200HG™ to leave their California facility is MSN 96, N901RT which is seen below yesterday while parked on the Regent Aircraft ramp at Calgary-International. The aircraft is currently being prepared for the delivery ferry flight. As can be seen in the picture it has been fitted with a utility interior and an Ikhana roll-up door.

Friday, 27 November 2015

The second of the two pending delivery flights I spoke of earlier today has now filed for departure from the Ikhana facility in Murrieta. N901RT is one of the three aircraft that were acquired from West Coast Air in Vancouver in 2014, and was subsequently upgraded to Series 200HG standard by Ikhana.

96 - DHC-6-200HG™ N901RT Ikhana Group Inc., Murrieta, CA

27-Nov-2015

Murrieta, CA (F70) - Caldwell-Industrial, ID (KEUL/EUL)

At the moment, the aircraft is currently filed in the FAA system as N910RT rather than N901RT.

As I alluded to in an earlier post, C-GUZP has now departed Springbank enroute to its first stop in Spokane, and then continuing on to North Bend, OR. This is the first Twin Otter for Indonesian operator Spirit Avia Sentosa, and is being ferried across the Pacific by World Wide Ferry.

The aircraft is seen below at Springbank after returning from painting in Mena, AR.

Today, a couple of catch-up items for N288SA and F-OCQZ below, with the former just needing confirmation that it has indeed arrived in Biak, and the latter a confirmation that it has completed the sector into Honiara.

The delivery of C-FMRI (see blog entry for yesterday) should continue today, departing from Carlsbad, NM en route to Calgary, while two other aircraft may also launch on delivery flights today, one from Canada, and one from the U.S.

Certainly something to brighten up an otherwise dull Russian winter, one of the two Rosneft Series 400's seen yesterday at Victoria while doing a compass swing. The other one, MSN 928 C-GFAP remains inside. Both are expected to be handed over to Rosneft before the end of the year.

Wednesday, 25 November 2015

Arrived Saint Vincent on delivery to SVG Air on 23-Nov-2015, and repainted as J8-UNI by 24-Nov-2015, as seen in the photo below. The Canadian registration cancellation has yet to be processed by
Transport Canada.

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

MSN 900, N915VK was flown down to Murrieta just over a year ago, and is seen on the ramp there last week. This is also the aircraft that did the trip down to Brazil in Aug-2014. Thanks to John Oram for the photo.

CAAMS Leasing has purchased its first pre-owned Viking DHC-6 Series 400 from Körfez Havaçilik Turizm of Turkey. MSN 857 is available for immediate long term lease. CAAMS intends to purchase an additional ten Viking Series 400 Twin Otters for its leasing portfolio in 2016.

CAAMS recently placed two Legacy DHC-6 Series 300 Twin Otters, MSN 389 and MSN 620 with Dimonim Air, operating in Papua, Indonesia. The two aircraft were leased just prior to the recent Indonesia Aging Aircraft Rule implementation, which requires newly imported aircraft to be 10 years old or less.

C-GKKN is nearing its destination of Saint Vincent on delivery to SVG Air. The aircraft had departed from the Unity Group MRO in Airdrie, AB on 19-Nov-2015. The former MASWings aircraft arrived in Canada in Jan-2015 and was fully overhauled and refurbished in Airdrie.

Saturday, 21 November 2015

On the heels of Kenn Borek's C-FKBU currently heading to Iowa, C-GKKN has departed Great Falls, MT for South Dakota. C-GKKN had arrived in Great Falls from Airdrie on 19-Nov-2015. The aircraft is bound for Grenadine Air Alliance, where it will be operated by SVG Air.

Coincidentally, although both aircraft spent their careers on different continents, they both came out of Downsview at the same time in 1982, being one unit apart (MSN 792 and 793).

The aircraft is seen below prior to departure from Canada, with the national flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

A brief stay in Calgary for C-FKBU (having arrived there in Sep-2015) before departing this morning. The destination would appear to be the Caribbean, and given the time of year I would guess that it perhaps heading to Saint Maarten.

The aircraft is seen below, prior to taking up Canadian marks, in Sep-2015 in Calgary.

See blog entry for 17-Nov-2015; HB-LPY arrived in Port Moresby, PNG on delivery to locally based Helifix who currently operate a fleet of Bell helicopters and a Cessna Grand Caravan. The new Twin Otter will primarily be used in support of oil & gas exploration operations in Papua New Guinea.

Thursday, 19 November 2015

C-GKKN was officially imported to the country almost exactly a year ago, and arrived in Calgary, AB on 02-Jan-2015 as seen in the photograph below. Since that time it has been undergoing overhaul and refurbishing at Unity Group in Airdrie.

Today the Skydive Stockholm Twin Otter is en route from Switzerland to Egypt. This is presumably the first sector of it positioning into the Skydive Dubai facility. The Fédération Aéronautique International World Air Games are taking place in Dubai beginning on 01-Dec-2015. Given today's routing, it would appear that ferry tanks must have been installed while in Altenrhein.

Registered 18-Nov-2015; this aircraft arrived in Altenrhein-Saint Gallen on 03-Nov-2015 as 9N-AFA. Southern Aircraft Consultancy is a specialist in Trustee services for foreign ownership of U.S. registered aircraft.

N903VK is scheduled to fly to Gander today, although at the time of writing was coming up on about an hour past scheduled departure time. This will be sector number three on its delivery flight to Dubai which originated in McMinnville, OR. It is flying under the callsign SXA1255.

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

After landing short of the originally planned destination of Green Bay, WI yesterday, this morning N903VK is continuing on to Milwaukee, WI. At the time of writing, it is about 2/3 of the way through the 689 mile trip.

Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Registered 17-Nov-2015 - C-GVTU was delivered to Timor Leste on 28-Oct-2015 and is currently undergoing familiarization and crew training formalities prior to joining the local register. The aircraft had previously been registered to Planes & Parts Ltd. who had undertaken the ferry delivery flight from Calgary.

5X-LPY was returned to Altenrhein back in Jun-2015 from operation in Uganda, and was subsequently restored back to HB-LPY. On 14-Nov-2015 the aircraft passed through the Maldives, as seen in the photo below. Today, it is flight planned for the following:

N903VK has departed McMinnville, OR this morning on the first leg of its delivery flight to Skydive Dubai. The aircraft is being flown by Southern Cross Aviation as SXA1255, and the initial sector to Green Bay, WI will be just over 1,700 miles. The aircraft diverted to Bismarck, ND rather than Green Bay, WI, some 700 miles short of the original destination.

Monday, 16 November 2015

For anyone following other DHC products, the Dash-7 Spotter & Archive site has been significantly updated over the past week. A total of 44 additional aircraft history pages have been added, along with 64 photographs.

Dash-7 Spotter is a combination of the news type items of a blog, along with full individual aircraft histories and photos (much like we have at Twin Otter Archive).

Friday, 13 November 2015

N288SA is currently about 2 hours offshore the west coast of North America, en route to Honolulu. The flight is scheduled to run at just over eleven hours, and is the first trans oceanic sector on its delivery to Dimonim Air in Indonesia. The aircraft had positioned down to Oakland from McMinnville, OR on 05-Nov-2015.

SN 920 was delivered to Victoria on 24-Mar-2015, and was flown down to Ikhana on 17-Sep-2015 for interior and door modifications. The routing to McMinnville would seem to indicate the installation of ferry tanks at Southern Cross Aviation for the delivery flight.

931 - DHC-6-400 C-GVVA Viking Air Ltd., Sidney, BC

11-Nov-2015

Spokane, WA (KGEG/GEG) - Victoria, BC (CYYJ/YYJ)

SN 931 flew from Calgary to Spokane on 24-Oct-2015, and yesterday was delivered to Victoria following painting.

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

The first British Antarctic Survey (BAS) DHC-6-300 to receive the upgraded Garmin G950 glass cockpit has been completed in Canada. The work was accomplished under the Aerocorp STC by Rocky Mountain Aircraft in Calgary, AB.

Before application of the STC on the remaining three BAS Twin Otters, the organization will verify the installation and functionality of the system on the single aircraft in the South Pole environment.

BAS is confident in the success of the trial, and upon completion will seek additional funding from the U.K. government to complete the remaining three aircraft.

MSN 928 C-GFAP was flown over to the Spokane paint facility on 16-Oct-2015, having been delivered direct from Calgary to Victoria in primer finish back on 27-Aug-2015. As can be seen in the photo below the aircraft has now received the distinctive Rosneft yellow and red/orange scheme, and Russian registration.

Rosneft is set to begin receiving the first of ten Series 400's this year, with deliveries running through Dec-2016. As Rosneft themselves do not possess an AOC, the aircraft will be operated by independent contractors.

The Indonesian Ministry of Transport has announced additional restrictions on locally-registered aircraft. The Indonesian Civil Aviation Regulations have been amended to prohibit the import, registration and use of commercial passenger aircraft older than ten years, and freighter aircraft of more than fifteen years.

Existing commercial passenger and freighter aircraft currently in service with local operators may not exceed thirty years of age. The Indonesian carriers have been given 36 months to comply with the regulation.

At this time the effect of the regulations on the current twenty-nine locally registered Twin Otters is unknown. The only aircraft that would meet the requirements of the amendment are the Series 400 aircraft flown by Airfast Indonesia. A grounding of the remaining series 300 aircraft, even by 15-Oct-2018 would have far reaching implications to the rural air transport system in the archipelago.

Interestingly, the state-owned aircraft manufacturer Indonesian Aerospace is expected to roll-out the first prototypes of their N219 aircraft, marketed as a "Twin Otter Replacement" in 2016. So far, the type has only seen a single confirmed order for 20 aircraft by Nusantara Buana Air. Any requirement to prohibit the operation of the older series Twin Otters would effectively force local operators to either upgrade to Viking Series 400 airframes, or acquire the Indonesian built N219.

The Indonesian regulator has made considerable progress in enacting regulations related to ensuring local operators are financially stable, that they maintain a minimum number of aircraft, and now that those aircraft meet an arbitrary age criteria. These amendments are progress, and need to be acknowledged accordingly - however incidents and accidents continue to occur at an appalling rate. Unfortunately you can't help but wonder if these changes were really the correct priorities in improving the country's air safety.

Below is Aerovias DAP DHC-6-300 CC-CHV at Puerto Williams, Chile. MSN 708 still carries the original delivery scheme from 1980, which is actually that of Brymon Airways whom the aircraft was originally planned for.

Puerto Williams is located on Isla Navarino, southeast of Ushuaia, Argentina.

Thursday, 5 November 2015

The last time that Southwest Air's P2-SWE was down in Australia (in Feb-2015) it had received a new tail scheme, however the fuselage remained in the old colours on the port side, and all white on the starboard. Today a more recent picture, in the final scheme, and looking very nice.

After having arrived in McMinnville back on 17-Sep-2015, N288SA has today departed. Rather than a direct KMMV-PHNL route, the aircraft is first heading down to Oakland, CA prior to embarking on the journey across the Pacific. The aircraft is being delivered by Southern Cross Aviation, and is destined for Dimonim Air, in Indonesia.

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Welcome to Utility Air of Sydney, Australia as the newest advertiser above. Utility is the exclusive distributor for Viking Air in the Pacific, and also offers a range of services including new and used aircraft sales.

The companies above represent the top suppliers and service providers in the world of Twin Otters, and this site exists and grows as a result of their support.

It has been quite some time since I have featured some of the great work of Tino Dietsche, whose pictures can be seen at airpics4you.ch . His site it definitely worth checking out for a wide variety of fixed wing and helicopter photographs from Switzerland.

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